Oracle is suing Google for copyright infringement related to its Java patents, and how they relate to the implementation of many of the Java APIs in Android.

In order to come up with an amount they determine they are owed in damages, Oracle has drummed up a few meaty numbers in relation to Android revenue per customer. Their conclusion is that “Each day’s worth of activations likely generates approximately $10 million in annual mobile advertising revenue for Google.” This is calculated by determining that there are approximately 700,000 daily Android activations worldwide, and each individual users generates $14 per year in mobile ad revenue for Google.

The number is pretty staggering; it’s not exactly like that saying Google makes $10 million every day from Android, but rather that have the potential to generate a significant amount of income per year from its user base, as per the daily activation numbers. Oracle also has the audacity to claim that the total number of Android activations will rise to 2.5 million per day, even though there is no indication that will happen, as the number of activations is thought to be peaking.

Oracle says that Google is in it for the long haul, and that Android is much more than just a mobile OS for them, but a way to gain a permanent foothold in the mobile space, from a very “closed OS” perspective:

“This revenue does not even include all the other value Android generates for Google, ranging from Android Market revenue, to other Android-related services, to ensuring that Google will not be locked out of the mobile business, to lucrative relationships with manufacturers of myriad devices on which Android can and does run, to the inordinately valuable access Android provides to customers for its new social network service, Google+. Indeed, Android has enabled Google to wield such power with regard to search and other services that its Android distribution and licensing practices — far from the ‘open’ practices Google has proclaimed it lives by — are under investigation by competition law agencies in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.”

The numbers are most likely wrong, but Oracle is correct in assuming that the scale of Android is enormous, as is its potential for revenue. We have no evidence to believe that each day’s Android activations is generating even close to $10 million annually for Google but clearly Oracle has a case here.

This post does not make much sense. Are they making “10 million annually” or daily? Please have a re-read, I think you might be mixing up date scale in a few places.

Dave

Pretty sure the title is correct.. this is how I reasoned it. (Approximately) 700,000 activations daily -> from each one of these activations $14 is made annually -> $14(money made annually in mobile advertising revenue)* 700,000(based on one day of activations) = $9,800,000 which rounded up is $10,000,000 annually (from one days worth of activations for a year of mobile advert revenue) Now for all days -> 365*700,000 = 255,500,000 (activations in a year) -> $14 (from annual mobile advertising revenue from each activation) * 255,500,000 (activations in entire year) = $3,577,000,000. The only thing I can’t really believe is 700000 daily activations. It is world wide.. but holy that’s a large number. Err at least to me it is.

Hammam

Google did a BIG mistake when it didn’t consider buying Java before Oracle did.

hai bison

Sorry, Java is not a cake for trading. If Google did that, it would hurt developers’ feeling. As Oracle’s doing that now.

For your information, Sun opened Java. Oracle is closing it.

SAM

TOUCH WOOD!!!!

hd1

Basically Oracle sees Microsoft making money off Android and feels left out.

andy c

Microsoft is smart. they went after the handset makers who have less money then Google therefore have more of an incentive to settle/license.

Tony

Yea, I think that title is wrong, because at the end of the article you mention 365×10,000,000, which is what I thought you were trying to get at. You’re trying to say that Oracle belives Google makes 10,000,000 daily from Android.

Therefore the title should be “Oracle believes Google makes $10 million daily from Android activations”

BOB

It isn’t just the title. It is repeated twice in the story. The source story is clear that it is $10 million per day. Otherwise, google is losing a lot of money on Android. A lot a lot.

Vito

The title changed, but it’s still not right. It should be “Oracle believes Google makes over $10 million DAILY from it’s 700,000+ DAILY Android activations”.

As others have pointed out, the numbers are wrong a couple of times in the body as well.

Jean-Michel

And this is exactly when everyone will turn to HTML5 instead of Java. Oracle will lose in the long run anyway so they better sue now… Microsoft does money off android for simple patents, why wouldn’t Oracle make money out of Java…

adam

except, you know, coding for Android is basically java. the Android SDK is based on Java.

beuh_dave

“When you need numbers, but you don’t know what they are, make them up” — Oracle

astudent

So Microsoft might actually make more than Google from Android? Bwahahaha oh so funny